They hated this little beat-up old guy. Even
if his crazy cosmic brain could track a
meteor clear across the Galaxy, why did he
have to smash the super-sensitive detectors?
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Planet Stories Spring 1948.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Nibley stood in the changing shadows and sounds of Marsport, watching
the great supply ship TERRA being entered and left by a number of
officials and mechanics. Something had happened. Something was wrong.
There were a lot of hard faces and not much talk. There was a bit of
swearing and everybody looked up at the night sky of Mars, waiting.
But nobody came to Nibley for his opinion or his help. He stood there,
a very old man, with a slack-gummed face and eyes like the little
bubbly stalks of crayfish looking up at you from a clear creek. He
stood there fully neglected. He stood there and talked to himself.
"They don't want me, or need me," he said. "Machines are better,
nowadays. Why should they want an old man like me with a taste for
Martian liquor? They shouldn't! A machine isn't old and foolish, and
doesn't get drunk!"
Way out over the dead sea bottoms, Nibley sensed something moving. Part
of himself was suddenly awake and sensitive. His small sharp eyes moved
in his withered face. Something inside of his small skull reacted and
he shivered. He _knew_. He knew that what these men were watching and
waiting for would never come.
Nibley edged up to one of the astrogators from the TERRA. He touched
him on the shoulder. "Say," he said. "I'm busy," said the astrogator.
"I know," said Nibley, "but if you're waiting for that small repair
rocket to come through with the extra auxiliary asteroid computator on
it, you're wasting your time."
"Like hell," said the astrogator, glaring at the old man. "That repair
rocket's got to come through, and quick; we need it. It'll get here."
"No, it won't," said Nibley, sadly, and shook his head and closed his
eyes. "It just crashed, a second ago, out on the dead sea bottom.
I--_felt_--it crash. I sensed it going down. It'll never come through."
"Go away, old man," said the astrogator. "I don't want to hear that
kind of talk. It'll come through. Sure, sure, it has to come through."
The astrogator turned away and looked at the sky, smoking a cigarette.
"I know it as a fact," said Nibley, but the young astrogator wouldn't
listen. He didn't want to hear the truth. The truth was not a pleasant
thing. Nibley went on, to himself. "I know it for a fact, just like
I was always able to know the course of meteors with my mind, or the
orbits or parabolas of asteroids. I tell you--"
The men stood around waiting and smoking. They didn't know yet about
the crash out there. Nibley felt a great sorrow rise in himself for
them. That ship meant a great deal to them and now it had crashed.
Perhaps their lives had crashed with it.
A loud speaker on the outer area of the landing tarmac opened out with
a voice: "Attention, crew of the Terra. The repair ship just radioed in
a report that it has been fired upon from somewhere over the dead seas.
It crashed a minute ago."
The report was so sudden and quiet and matter-of-fact that the standing
smoking men did not for a moment understand it.
Then, each in his own way, they reacted to it. Some of them ran for
the radio building to verify the report. Others sat down and put their
hands over their faces. Still more of them stood staring at the sky as
if staring might put the repair ship back together again and get it
here safe and intact. Instinctively, at last, all of them looked up at
the sky.
Jupiter was there, with its coterie of moons, bright and far away.
Part of their lives lived on Jupiter. Most of them had children and
wives there and certain duties to perform to insure the longevity
of said children and wives. Now, with the speaking of a few words
over a loudspeaker, the distance to Jupiter was suddenly an immense
impossibility.
The captain of the Rocket Terra walked across the field slowly. He
stopped several times to try and light a cigarette, but the night wind
blew it out. He stood in the rocket shadow and looked up at Jupiter and
swore quietly, again and again and finally threw down his cigarette and
heeled it with his shoe.
Nibley walked up and stood beside the captain.
"Captain Kroll...."